


where never sun has shown

by windbellows



Series: a fire that knows the naming of you [4]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Gen, Reunions, Worldbuilding, of a sort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:27:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28077696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windbellows/pseuds/windbellows
Summary: A Skull Kid sits on the bridge over the lake, and watches Farosh soar.
Relationships: Link & Skull Kid (Legend of Zelda)
Series: a fire that knows the naming of you [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2142756
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	where never sun has shown

**Author's Note:**

> frustrated with the lack of skull kids in botw, i developed a crazy theory that they're THERE cause koroks don't go into the woods if they can help it but someone's still out there laughing. may or may not come back to edit this. enjoy!

Link first meets a Skull Kid on the bridge over Lake Floria, before the sun’s risen over the hills. He thinks they’re a child at first, from far away, a small figure sitting on the edge of the bridge and swinging their legs - but as he gets closer their beak and wooden frame is much more noticeable, and Link comes to a stop beside them. The Skull Kid looks up.

“It’s you,” they say. 

“It’s me,” Link echoes. “I’ve never seen you before.”

“I’ve never seen you either, which is why you haven’t seen me.” The Skull Kid pats the space beside them. “You probably don’t use this bridge much in the morning, cause that’s when I sit here. Wanna sit with me?”

Link doesn’t see why not, so he sits down. They’re facing the waterfalls. The child wears clothes of oranges and greens, and a wide-brimmed hat that looks comfortable. Leaves are twisted around the edges, with more stuck in between, sticking outwards. Their eyes are a bright amber.

“Are you a child?” 

“I’m a Skull Kid,” says the Skull Kid. “How much do you remember?”

Link shrugs. “Not a lot.”

“Doesn’t matter,” chirps the Skull Kid. “You’re sitting with me now, and that’s what does.” Then they gasp: “Look! Look. Here she comes.” And the ground shakes with thunder, and Farosh emerges from over the topmost waterfall in all her great and silent glory, and Link and the Skull Kid watch as she soars in front and beneath them. The Skull Kid clutches onto their hat, so it doesn’t get swept away in the updraft. 

Link quickly tugs them out of the way of her lightning, at which the Skull Kid giggles. “Don’t worry. I don’t get burned. You do, though.”

“Is that why you sit here?” Link asks, when Farosh and her rumbling has faded away. “To watch Farosh?”

The Skull Kid nods. 

“I see her a lot over Lake Hylia,” Link tells them. “She’s beautiful.”

They sit on the bridge’s edge in silence until the sun’s rays breach the trees, and the Skull Kid slips away and below the bridge. Quickly though, they stick their head back up, hands clutching the edge. Link feels they’re on their tiptoes. He looks back, waiting. 

The Skull Kid stretches out a hand. Link takes it in his and lightly squeezes. The Skull Kid’s eyes light up and their beak cracks in a smile, and they wisp away back underneath. 

“I’ll come back!” he calls out, hoping the Skull Kid heard.

\--

Tales of the Triforce have long faded from Hyrule. The symbol of royalty holds no meaning. Link wears no golden birthmark but he does have grass stains, and he couldn’t tell you what the Triforce is and neither could anyone else. 

But folk all over still talk of the out-of-sight children of the woods, and of trees with branches like fingers that point travelers off the path; the forest has outlived the Triforce and so has Link, and where the forest goes the Woods follows.

\--

Link’s seen one Skull Kid and now he can’t stop seeing them; or maybe it’s that they were always there, and he just didn’t see. They’re different from Koroks, he knows, since people usually can’t see Koroks; but Skull Kids, from what Link can tell, can choose to be seen, and Link seems to have been chosen. He’s been chosen for a lot of things, but this he doesn’t mind.

When he crouches down at a fire for the night his eyes catch amber ones peeking out from the bushes, or behind a tree. Link can’t help but smile as he pats the ground beside him, and the Skull Kid - or two, or three - trots out, their eyes wide.

They play songs, and he tells them stories. He tells them of the far reaches of Hyrule where the wind itself comes alive, and of the ruins of Gerudo and the statues with their rusted swords. Skull Kids hide in the cracks on the side of Tanagar Canyon - they like this canyon, they tell him, because it’s so deep that you can’t see the bottom from the top and it reminds them of home - and Link squats besides them and whispers about how he’s seen Dinraal at the edge of the world, and he has the scales to prove it.

In time, he starts to remember the places where Skull Kids like to hide. Copses and abandoned wagons by the roadside, the depths of Dinraal’s canyon, all over Faron under tangled roots and flooded ruins and fishing in the pools - places, he quickly realizes, where there’s cover. Huddling with a Skull Kid under a traveler's tent one day to wait out a storm, Link thinks to ask where their home even is.

The Skull Kid tilts their head. “Don’t you know?”

“I might,” Link says honestly. “It’ll come to me.”

The Skull Kid curls against him, shivering, and Link tugs off his hood to wrap around them. On him it might have passed for a scarf, but on them it’s more like a blanket. 

“This’ll pass,” he tries to reassure. “I was headed for Akkala, but I can’t climb cliffs in this weather. What about you?”

“I was looking for you,” the Skull Kid murmurs, and Link doesn’t know what to say to that so he wraps an arm around them. People who’ve been looking for him either want him dead or want him dutiful, but the Skull Kids he’s met don’t seem to have any big motive other than to say hi and hello. They smell pleasant, like dew and misty mornings. 

Whenever he’s in Faron he makes a habit of seeing the Skull Kid on the bridge; they sit together before the crack of dawn and watch Farosh rise and sink, and then Link leaves, but never without a hand squeeze and always with a promise to return. He doesn’t promise often, but when he does and he’s honest he’s sure to keep it.

One morning he stays, and the Skull Kid waves him underneath the bridge. Link crawls after them and they _vanish_ into the tree trunk - curious, he crouches between the branches and pokes at the bark until he finds a spot where his finger sinks through like it’s air. Link follows as if he’s diving and tumbles into the Skull Kid’s hollow, which had been hidden this entire time.

“Nice place,” he remarks, getting up and rubbing his back. It’s a lot bigger than the part of the tree holding up the bridge, and they might be in its submerged trunk. Sprigs of nightshade have been hung around the wall, lighting the hollow in a pleasant blue glow. It occurs to Link that it’s daytime, but it’s probably so dark here that that doesn’t matter. 

A few pots and baskets sit around the hollow. Link takes a peek inside one near him - it’s a bunch of nuts, unlike any he’s seen before. He pops one in his mouth. It’s sweet, and his eyes grow wide. “These are amazing,” he exclaims.

“You like them?” The Skull Kid scurries over. “They’re from home,” they tell him delightly as he grabs a handful. “They don’t grow anywhere in this world.” 

Link swallows his handful and wipes his mouth. “Where is home?” he asks, genuinely curious. “I feel like I’m supposed to know, but I don’t.”

The Skull Kid leans in. “Can I tell you a secret?”

“Sure,” Link agrees, and the Skull Kid skips to a bed of leaves and sits down, and Link sits beside them; the Skull Kid grabs his hands and Link squeezes back on instinct. “Something wrong? I seriously won’t pry if you’re not supposed to tell.”

The Skull Kid shakes their head. “It’s fine, it’s fine,” they giggle, and they lean in again and whisper to Link, “We were _waiting_ for you.”

Link’s eyebrows rise. “Waiting? For me?”

The Skull Kid nods.

“Lots of people are waiting for me.” 

“But we’ve been waiting for a _long_ time."

"How long?"

The Skull Kid swings their legs with barely-contained excitement. “A really long time.”

“Longer than a hundred years?”

They nod energetically. “Lots longer. And there’s someone at home who’s been waiting for even longer. But we’ve been here.”

Link hums. “I guess I’ll have to see them. And I take it they’re at- home?”

The Skull Kid winks one amber eye. “Home for me and home for you!”

\--

In the end, Link figures it out himself. He could have asked the Tree, or he could have overheard the tales of children that hide in the shadows - but it’s in a cave behind a waterfall (in Faron, of course it’s in Faron) where Link finds a Skull Kid chipping away at some luminous stone. Link takes a few swings at the stone with his sword, and it breaks into pieces. The Skull Kid quickly scrambles to pick up the shards, and Link pockets a few for himself. 

“We use these for decoration,” the Skull Kid explains later, when they’re leaning against the shrine. The warmth of the old structure seeps through his clothes. “I like to put these in my instrument, but some people like to hang them up or wear them.” They dig out the instrument in question - a thick wooden flute, and upon closer inspection Link sees the indents made in the wood where even smaller luminous shards have been stuck in. 

“I bet that’s really pretty at night,” he muses. 

The Skull Kid tilts their head. “They’re always pretty.”

“Yeah, but they start glowing at night.”

“At home, they glow all the time,” says the Skull Kid. “You should see it.”

“Does the sun just not rise? At home?”

“Near the path you can see this sky, if you squint.” The Skull Kid raises the flute to their beak. “But beyond the path, you can’t see it. It’s not night or day, but it’s always glowing.” They play a song that reminds Link of rolling clouds, and he closes his eyes and tries to picture a place with a notable path and a notable beyond. 

“We don’t like to go into the Woods if we can help it,” the Korok tells him, once. Tendrils of mist reach for Link and congregate into a cloud that swallows him whole and he hears _laughter_ , he always does, and if the Koroks don’t like to go into the Woods then who-

The nightshade here doesn’t stop shining. Realization hits the Hero as he’s pulled to the mouth of the Woods, and the trees with their grimaces look more like they’re smirking.

\--

Not _too_ far from the path, because he can feel the mist just waiting as his back, Link finds a hole within a tree and decides to look inside, just a quick glance - the holes in trees where Koroks like to hide as pots comes to mind, but this tree is hollow through and through. It’d make a good home for somebody, but before Link can properly make out anything inside the mist catches up to him, and it smells like dew. 

\--

“I found out,” he tells the Skull Kid under the bridge, tossing a nut hand to hand. “I found it.”

The Skull Kid gasps. “You found home?”

Link nods and sits up. “Do you know how I can get past the mist?”

“Why?”

“I want to see it,” he explains. “I want to see your home. There’s someone waiting for me.”

“You want to go home,” they correct him. The Skull Kid sits down in front of him and grabs his hands; he squeezes back. “No matter what,” they tell him, quite seriously, “You always come back home.”

“To the Woods.”

They nod. “They’re waiting too.”

“I don’t get it,” he mutters. “I can’t even get past the mist.”

“I’m going to tell you another secret,” the Skull Kid says. “It’s a _game._ The torches, the embers, the wind. It’s set up like one. Don’t feel bad about it,” they add. “It’s like that for everyone, but it wasn’t always. You used to need a guide or you’d get lost. The mist is old and strong there and no one’s been able to beat it.”

In retrospect, Link had never considered who it was who kept the fires lit, and who set the torches up in the first place; he says, in a conspiratorial whisper, “How can I beat it?”

“You’ve gotta figure that out,” the Skull Kid breathes. “Be cunning. Be quick.”

The mist curls just behind the trees, anticipating. 

One day Link will outrun it; one day he’ll careen through the trees and leap over the roots, the mist nipping at his feet and reaching for his shoulder and he’s outran deer and bears and Yiga soldiers out for his life and by the Goddess he’ll outrun this - but not today. It’ll be a game of chase and his own devising, but Link wants to be sure that he’ll win.

One day, if one were a god, they could peel back the over of the Woods and be greeted with a boy sprinting through waist-high grass that grows nowhere else, with exhilaration blasting through his bones and heart and flesh. Every breath will be torn from his chest but he can’t stop running, even if he tried. He doesn’t want to. But in the meantime Link heaves balls of snow downhill and finds a slumbering skeleton with a shrine in its belly, and a Skull Kid sleeping as well, up against the warm thrumming of the shrine. He makes a fire on dry land and starts roasting enough mushrooms for two.

And deep within the Woods beyond the mist, where the trees grow taller and in place of the sky there lives a fine fog and instead of holding stars it shimmers, small lanterns of glowing green hang from the branches. Even deeper there’s a clearing, and a stump. It’s a precious clearing with a precious stump, and a Skull Kid plays a song of secrets.

Two fairies perch on Skull Kid’s hat. One day, when Link finally stumbles into this clearing the golden fairy will know him first and she'll gasp, and Skull Kid will follow suit and nearly drop their ocarina and run to Link. He’ll kneel down and wrap them in a tight hug and Skull Kid will cry tears of soft amber and sob _You found me, you found me_ and Link will kiss the forehead of the friend he’s never known and he’ll murmur _I found you, I found you._ Not many people who’ve waited for Link have waited for the sake of seeing him again.

But today is not that day, and the smell of roasting mushrooms rouses the Skull Kid.

\--

There is still another secret left. This one Link knows, and he doesn’t - the Skull Kid confessed it to him once, in the hidden hollow.

The springs, unique in name and Goddess namesake, are also unique in state. When Link made his way through the biting cold to the tip of Mt. Lanayru, the Spring of Wisdom lay infested with Malice, as did its guardian. The Spring of Power bears the presence of Guardians, and fiery Dinraal dares not fly near. She knows too well how badly Malice can sting. But Farosh tends to leave her spring be; it’s guarded indeed, and a great tree grows over its ruins. There’s ruins all over Faron, far older than the ones left in the wake of the Calamity, as well as Skull Kids. They're old too.

Faron tends to be misty, but the thick mist over the spring never leaves. The Spring of Courage is _hidden._ Faron is a special place, and the Skull Kids have been waiting there for an age, perhaps a thousand years or even ten times that. Their magic is all about hiding. If they so wish it, the mist will follow them where they go, and if Link were to climb to the edge of the longest branch at the tip of the great tree and stretch his hand out, the mist might reach up and grab him back, as it'd do in a far-off wood.

The Skull Kids could be hiding there because they know what the spring means, and who it’s for. They could be there at the request of a friend. _Courage need not be remembered_ , some say, _for it is never forgotten,_ and neither is friendship, and a kind and clever heart.

Link takes the Skull Kid to the bridge over Lake Hylia, and atop the crumbling structure at one end they watch Farosh under the stars. The Skull Kid’s hat sits beside them. It's for the day since the sun hurts their eyes, but it’s night, and the gentle moon is a treasure to behold. Hand sits in hand, and Link squeezes, and the Skull Kid squeezes back.

In the morning the Skull Kid will sit at the edge of their own bridge to see the green dragon once more, and they'll swing their legs.

It's always been just them, which they don’t mind. But now they have a friend to look forward to, and Link’s woken up but he sits by the Skull Kid and watches beside them, and they’re happy.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading ^^


End file.
